Silla Sleeping
by JediGurrl
Summary: Dunno where this came from, it's a psuedo futuristic story. I recently realised that it was a Crow Fanfic, so I moved it.
1. Hatching

It was time. Silla was, for lack of a better word, hatching.  
  
She'd put herself into extended cryogenic hibernation seven years ago to halt the progress of the Phaylen's Syndrome that was slowly eating away at her.  
It was something she did on her own. When the rest of the research group came into the lab the next morning there she was, Snow White in her glass casket.  
  
Tem, her husband, took it the hardest. He'd known about the Syndrome of course, known that it was slowly leaching away the time they had to spend together.  
Silla had left explicit instructions that she was only to be revived when she was cured, or if the world was ending.  
  
She'd known that she had at the most five years before she was completely debilitated, she'd also known that it would take them at least six to find a successful cure.  
One might see what she did as selfish, but one didn't know her that well then.  
Anything Silla did, she did out of love.  
  
Over the past eighteen months, Tem had managed to perfect a cure. He'd used it to stop, and reverse the advanced aging brought on by the Syndrome, and also reverse his own aging of the past seven years.  
  
So now it was time.  
  
Tem was waiting, one hand against the glass of Silla's cocoon. The thin rime of permafrost had already evaporated and the chamber was slowly warming, according to the monitors, Silla's heartbeat and breathing were gradually coming back up to normal levels.  
  
Alix, the head medic, had already prepared a cot, and was now just waiting for-there it was-the soft hiss of the chamber opening. Tem lifted his wife's still near-comatose body and carried her gently to the cot. He curled up against her, lending his heat to help warm her.  
  
Two hours later, Silla still hadn't woken. Alix shook her head, "S'no use. No brain activity. The human body wasn't meant to be inoperative for that long Tem. And even if she does wake up, we can't be sure it's still going to be her in there."   
Tem closed his eyes, "She's still my wife. Still the woman I love." He sighed, resting his head against Silla's back, between her shoulder blades.  
  
In that moment, Alix saw with perfect clarity that losing Silla again wouldn't just break Tem's heart. It would kill him. More surely than losing her to the Syndrome would have, then he would've been able to see it coming. Losing her now would be meaningless, unexplained, and it would shatter what was left of him.   
He'd be left with going through the motions the rest of his life. Perhaps he'd still be the brilliant biologist he'd always been, but his heart wouldn't be in his work, simply because it would've died, here, now, with Silla's second death.  
  
Alix refused to let that happen. She started attaching electrodes to Silla's head, neck and arms, "Right, if you want her back, I'm going to need your help Tem."  
He nodded, planting a light kiss at the nape of Silla's neck before rising, "What should I do?" He had put his love aside for the moment, he had to so that he could treat Silla as he would any other patient, that meant letting Alix take over.  
  
Alix nodded, affixing three more electrodes down the back of Silla's neck, "Prep an injection, dose and a half of SB5."  
Tem paused preparing the injection, "Why SB5, the side effects..."  
"Are rare, and easily reverse." She cut him off lightly, "What's the difference between comatose and deep REM sleep?"  
  
Tem blinked, handing her the injector, "Coma is usually brain-dead, no activity. Deep REM is lots of activity, dreaming."  
Alix half smiled, injecting the drug into Silla's still-sluggish system, "The SB5 should bring on an artificial state of REM sleep, in theory, giving her brain a jump-start."  
Tem nodded slowly, "Makes sense, in theory. But how will we know it's working in reality?"  
  
Silla arched suddenly, every muscle taught, her hands clenching reflexively.  
Alix gently pressed her back down, "Tem, get a brace between her teeth before she breaks them."  
Tem nodded, slipping the thick soft plastic wedge between Silla's teeth when she threw her head back, gasping for air. She continued to writhe for another minute or so.  
Alix nodded, watching the monitors as Silla fell still, "So far so good. Talk to her Tem, touch her. If anyone can bring her the rest of the way back, it's you."  
  
Tem pulled a chair over next to Silla's cot and sat, her hand clasped between both of his, "Silla, if any part of you can hear me, open your eyes, come back to me. Please Sil, if you don't wake up, I won't be able to go on, the only reason I survived the past seven years was because I knew I was working to get you back. And if I don't, then seven years of work will all be in vain. Never mind the hundreds, maybe thousands of people that we can now cure. You're the only one that matters, because you're the one I love."  
  
He laced his fingers with hers, sighing softly, his other hand reaching up to flick an errant lock of hair away from Silla's eyes, "You hear me Sil? I love you. Please, /please/ come back to me." 


	2. Awake

I had been aware, vaguely, of dark, and cold. I somehow remember both of those, they seemed infinite, everything I'd ever known.  
Then there was a flash of light and sound.  
It was painful.  
  
But weaving through the blinding commotion was a voice, golden and soothing as honey.  
After a moment I realized that it was Tem. Tem was talking to me!  
Once I deciphered what he was saying, I was torn between wanting to smack him and tell him to stop being so melodramatic, and wanting to throw my arms around him and never /ever/ let go.  
  
So I followed his voice, using it as a path through the bright cacophony that the inside of my head had become.  
I could feel my eyes open, they felt heavy, and the kind of dry that happens after having them open underwater for too long, one by one I noticed other sensations, the telltale spots of damp and sticky that held electrodes to my skin, the almost quiet of the lab, the feeling of breathing, how tight my chest felt.  
  
I could tell that one of my hands was being held, kissed lightly. It took more effort than one would've thought, but I curled my fingers, weaving them more tightly with Tem's.  
I knew it had to be Tem, who else would be waiting for me to wake from my years-long nap?  
  
I was waking up. That meant one of two things, I was hoping for the best, and assuming the worst.  
After the second try, I managed to swallow, my voice felt thick, slurred, and probably didn't sound much better.  
  
I tried to say "Apocalypse?" But I think it came out more like "pock lips?"  
I turned my head, blinking at Tem, he looked the same as when I'd put myself under, but somehow different, like he'd seen things that no one should've had to.  
It took him a minute to realize that I was mostly conscious and had in fact, just asked him a question.  
  
He blinked, almost as if he didn't trust his own senses, "What? No, no the world's not ending. You're cured."  
As I smiled, I could feel how parched my lips were, painfully so actually.  
Tem smiled back, it was nice to see, his smile had always made me melt. No matter what else has changed, that hasn't, "Alix, is it alright to take the 'trodes off?"  
  
I heard Alix somewhere past my head, "Not just yet, give it a couple minutes. Here, " a small jar was passed to Tem, "Get some salve on her lips before they get any worse."  
Tem smiled, dipping a thumb into the jar, then smoothing it across my lips.  
His fingers were warm, and I could almost taste the ointment when I inhaled, bittersweet and earthy.  
  
Tem laced his fingers with mine again, still smiling faintly, "You don't know how often I dreamt of this."  
"Mmm, bet I can guess." Already talking was becoming easier, less of an effort.  
I was also aware of the pins and needles tingle in my hands and feet, slowly spreading up my legs and arms, "Mmph, limbs're falling asleep."  
  
Tem smiled yet again, shaking his head, "No, they're waking up. Look at it this way, you've been shut down for the past seven years, and now that you're starting up again, all your systems and components are coming back on line one at a time. Apparently circulation started first. You'll probably be hungry in a few minutes."  
  
I nodded as his fingers started working, deftly massaging the tingle out of my limbs.  
By the time he finished, I was indeed hungry. Alix helped me sit up, peeling the electrodes off of my arms neck and head. I could see every one of the past seven years in her face, the way she moved, her entire presence was older.  
  
But her smile was the same, lopsided, roguish, daring. She gave me a brief hug, little more than wrapping her arm around my shoulders, "Glad to have you back Sil. Now maybe something'll actually get done around here."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 


	3. The Cure

The first few weeks after Silla awoke were hard on the couple; they had seven years of catching up to do, and no time to themselves to do it in.  
Tem and Silla had always been very physical, never all over each other in any sense of the phrase, but they never missed a chance to have some, any, sort of contact.  
  
Working on the same side of a lab table so that they could lean against each other, shoulders in almost constant contact.  
The lightest brush of fingers when one would pass something to the other.  
Tem waiting behind Silla, arms around her waist, chin on her shoulder, watching while she tested plant samples.  
Silla, working across the table from Tem, reaching up to brush away a strand of hair that had fallen in his eyes while both his hands were busy.  
Simple things, washing their hands in the same basin at the same time.  
Eating side by side at meals.  
Sharing a room-and a bed-even if all they did was sleep there.  
  
Anyone who came across them in the Garden, or the Observatory, on the Promenade, anywhere really, took them to be sweethearts, newlyweds at most, not a couple that was three years away from a tenth anniversary at the time Silla put herself under.  
  
The first few weeks after Silla was revived, and the Cure went into distribution, were a near-constant stream of conferences and interviews.  
The two still managed though, holding hands behind the podium at press conferences.  
Sitting side by side for interviews.  
Stealing kisses while the focus was on one of the other researchers during Holo-net conferences.  
  
Then one night they found themselves blessedly alone, sitting on a bench in a quiet corner of the Garden.  
It was well past Station Sunset, so the only light was ambient starglow, the occasional firefly, and of course, one of Silla's pet projects, the bioluminescent lanternvine.  
All in all there was enough light to see by, and it was a friendly glow.  
  
They sat in silence for a while, holding hands, Silla's head resting against Tem's shoulder, Tem's head against Silla's.  
They weren't silent because there was nothing to be said. They were silent because there was nothing that had to be said.  
  
Eventually Tem broke the silence with a question, "You know what today is, right?"  
Silla nodded, reluctant to move her head from where it fit so perfectly against Tem's shoulder, "It's our anniversary. Eighth for me, fifteenth for you."  
  
Tem chuckled, shaking his head, "Eighth for both of us love."  
Silla blinked, lifting her head to look Tem in the eyes, "The Cure... the one question no one's asked yet..." She held his face between her hands, eyes locked with his, "Tem, can the Cure be used as an Immortality Potion?"  
  
Tem blinked, surprised for a moment at her vehemence, "Only under the right conditions, which very few people, maybe one in every few thousand, outside of a lab would have."  
She still didn't let go, with hands or eyes, "Tell me how it works Tem."  
  
Tem carefully took Silla's hands from his face, holding them between his own, "Your research is what finally cinched it, your nematodes for keeping plants alive after they've been picked. The Cure is a retrovirus, keyed into the healthy cells, the ones that are the right age, and it burns through, eats anything older than that, replacing it with regenerated healthy cells, it's self-replicating and ages at the same rate as the host body, so that it still burns through any advanced aging, but not the normal aging process. Does that make any sense?"  
  
Silla nodded, "How did you use it effectively on yourself?"  
Tem blinked, holding Silla's hands fore firmly as they began to shake, "You know that we take cell samples from each of the research team, at the beginning of winter, and the beginning of summer every year. Every six months, like clockwork, it was your policy after all, in case something went wrong. All I had to do was key the retrovirus to my sample from winter seven years ago."  
  
Silla was trembling, "Tem, you know the rules, the /laws/ about Immortality Potions."  
Tem nodded, holding Silla's hands a moment longer before drawing her close and wrapping her in a protective hug, "I know Sil, and I haven't broken any of them outright. The Cure was never intended to be an Immortality Potion, and I wasn't even sure it would work as one, and I wasn't using it for any other reason than to re-gain seven years with you. Seven years isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, but without you, they seemed like an eternity."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 


	4. Dream Bird

I remembered waiting, seemingly endless waiting, waiting for the right ingredients to be synthesized, measured, mixed correctly.  
I remembered times when Alix had to sedate me just to get me to go to sleep.  
I remembered fourteen festivals, thirteen birthdays, seven for Silla, six for me, and six anniversaries, all without Silla.  
  
I don't think I realized how much I missed her until I got her back.  
  
And now here she was, asleep in my arms, the same as always.  
As if the past seven years never happened, and for her, they never really had.  
  
She stirred, murmuring softly in her sleep.  
She was dreaming, that much I knew, I'd been watching her eyes flicker beneath the lids for a while now.  
  
She turned slightly, brow furrowing, murmuring again, her dream apparently becoming more intense.  
I reached up, running my fingertips along her brow gently. Kyzè, the Station's psychologist once told me never to startle Silla awake from a nightmare, just to bring her out of it as slowly and gently as possible.  
She relaxed slightly, falling still again. I ran my fingers slowly down her arm.  
  
Moments later she snapped awake, gasping sharply.  
I continued stroking her arm, "It's alright Sil, was just a dream." I could feel her heart racing in the pulse point at her elbow.  
  
She blinked, then sighed, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose, "Dream. Right. Just a dream."  
  
I nodded, fingertips rubbing a slow circle against her temple, "What was it Sil?"  
She shook her head slightly, eyes still closed, "Bird. Shiny, oilslick black. Huge."  
  
"How big?" I asked, concerned.  
She shook her head slightly again, "Wasn't actually big, just magnified."  
  
I nodded, watching her face, "Well, it's morning, the birds are probably out and about in the Aviary if you want to see if you can spot it."  
  
The Aviary was one of Riish Alosha's inventions, much like a regular HoloZoo, but with an encyclopedic database of folklore and legend for each bird.  
Alosha was not only expanding the Aviary almost daily, but was working on a Zoo as well.  
But that's what the Riish did, catalogued everything. They were the galaxy's librarians and record keepers.  
  
Silla nodded, rubbing her eyes, "I think I will, when's our first meeting today?"  
I shook my head, stretching and yawning, "Mm, about an hour, it's a talk show, HoloNet, so it'll be alright if we're a little late."  
  
Silla slipped out of bed, nodding again. She showered and dressed in a matter of minutes, then dried and braided her hair while she waited for me to finish.  
  
The Aviary was its usual cacophony of sound and kaleidoscope of color.  
Every single bird was presented at one sixteenth life size. Except in cases where that would render them invisible, or near-invisible to the naked eye.  
Bumblebee Hummingbirds for instance were only a quarter size, and Lerunian Fyeyes were two thirds size.  
  
Silla stood in the middle of the room, eyes half closed, listening for her mystery bird.  
Her voice was low, but as long as the commands were there, the computer was designed to pick them up, no matter the volume.  
  
"Filter by color, I want to see only the birds with black feathers and beaks."  
The room seemed to shiver a moment, all the vibrant jeweltoned birds melting into the background, camouflaging themselves, leaving only a monochrome array of various sized birds, a thousand at least.  
  
Silla nodded, 'Now filter by sound, remove all the songbirds." That cut the crowd by half. I crossed the grass, just being present behind her.  
  
After a few more filtrations she had pared the group down to a couple dozen. She sat cross-legged on the grass, the eccentric flock of birds in front of her, ruffling feathers and watching her.  
  
She regarded each of them as if she were trying to see through them, "Filter again, take out any that don't have Death legends attributed to them."  
That left seven birds, I draped an arm around her shoulders, "Why Death legends?"  
  
She shook her head, "Just a feeling"  
I nodded, I'd learned long ago to trust Silla's intuitions.  
  
She sighed, watching the remaining birds. They watched her right back. She sighed again, waving a hand at them. They all reacted as any bird would, they took flight, startled.  
All but one. It merely hopped backwards, and tilted its head, letting out a raucous cry.  
  
Silla blinked, then smiled, "That's the one. Bring it up to full size."  
The bird rippled, growing to about a foot tall, beak to the floor.  
  
It cawed again, tilting its head, regarding us coolly with one dark glittering eye, shifting from foot to foot like an anxious child.  
Silla smiled again, "Filters off, tell me about this one."   
  
Riish Alosha's pleasant, lilting voice chimed in as the rest of the birds came back into view, "Corvus brachyrhynchos, the Common Crow. Planet of Origin: Earth. Crows survived the first two plagues, and it's believed that remnants survived all the way through to the fourth, long after the planet was rendered uninhabitable to human life."  
  
There was a brief pause in case we wanted to ask any questions.  
Silla relaxed slightly, eyes closed, listening.  
  
Riish Alosha's disembodied voice continued, "People once believed that when a person." The voice was suddenly replaced by Kyzè's, "There you two are, you're ten minutes late, Alix is stalling the best she can, but you'd better hurry."  
  
I nodded, helping Silla up, "We're on our way"  
Silla took her Infodex out of a pocket and pointed it at the crow, creating a direct link to all the information in the Aviary's database about it..  
She'd read it, bit by bit, a little at a time between meetings, Silla never skimmed anything, she always read it all the way through.  
  
It took us less than a minute to get to the conference room, the focus was on Kyzè at the moment. "what did you tell them?" I mouthed, as Silla and I settled.  
Alix smiled, making a very descriptive hand gesture.  
  
Silla snorted, I tried my hardest not to laugh as I draped an arm around her shoulders, "Good old Alix, always covering for us."  
  
Kyzè finished his speech with a smirk and an "Ahh, here they are now."  
The focus shifted and the host smiled, "We were wondering if you were going to show up."  
  
Silla managed to blush, something she usually only did when she was angry or startled.  
I smiled, glancing at her as she buried her face in my shoulder, then I smiled at the host, "Well, it has been seven years you know, and last night was our anniversary after all."  
  
The host smiled again, "Awww, and how long have the two of you been married then?"  
"Eight years"  
Silla arched a brow slightly, "Not counting the years that I was in the deep freeze of course."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 


	5. Forever Lovers

Silla continued to dream of the crow almost every night.  
Then one night the dream was different.  
She was working in the garden, planting seedlings. When she glanced up, there was a man perched on one of the wide low branches of the ash tree.  
He was pale, dressed in black, and was a wiry, nervous sort of thin.  
His head was down, chin to his chest, hands atop his head, nesting in his hair like pale spiders.  
Silla stood transfixed, watching him silently, willing him to move, lift his head, breathe, something, /any/thing that would prove he was live.  
Silla realized she was holding her breath; she let it out slowly with a whispered, "Who are you?"  
  
The man slowly lifted his head, bottomlessly dark eyes meeting Silla's stormy gray.  
He smiled slightly, the expression exaggerated by the painted on harlequin grin, black against his powdered white face.  
His voice was calm, soothing, almost hypnotic, "I've lived a thousand lifetimes, to find a soul like yours. A soul so pure, a soul so brave, an angel that takes my breath away." He tilted his head, birdlike, watching her, "Sound familiar Silla?"  
  
Silla could only blink and nod, shocked speechless, of course it sounded familiar, it was her wedding vows.  
She blinked again, brow furrowing, "Who /are/ you?"  
  
The man smiled again, then began to laugh, the laugh became a harsh raucous cry as he dropped from the branch, becoming an oversized crow. He swooped at her, buffeting her with his wings, still cawing loudly, screaming even.  
Silla took a step backwards, throwing an arm up to protect her face.  
She tripped over one of the tools she'd been using.  
Tripped, fell, kept falling, the ground dropping away beneath her.  
  
Silla snapped awake, wrapped in Tem's arms. She made a small sound in the back of her throat, like a frightened animal, fighting her way away from him.  
Tem let her go and slid off the bed, holding his hands up where she could see them, trying to show he really wasn't a threat, "Silla, Sil, it's just me. You were having a nightmare, it's just me, you alright Sil?"  
  
Silla blinked twice, heart still racing, "Tem?"  
Tem nodded, staying where he was, "Yes. Are you alright?"  
Silla shook her head, "No. No I don't think I am Tem."  
Tem perched on the edge of the bed, draping an arm around her tentatively, "What's wrong?"  
She shook her head, leaning against him, head resting on his shoulder, "I don't know, not for sure. It's probably just after-effects of being on ice for so long. I think I should go have a talk with Kyzè."  
  
Tem mock-pouted, "Why can't you have a talk with me?" He wheedled.  
Silla half smiled, leaning up to kiss the corner of his mouth lightly, trying her hardest to push the unease of the dream away to the back of her mind for the moment, "Mm, I /could/ but you're a biologist, not a psychologist, and you're also my husband and the love of my life, for a case like this, I'm going to need someone with a little objectivity."  
Tem sighed and nodded, kissing her forehead, "Alright, you go take a shower, get dressed, I'll call and see if he's up. We've only got one meeting today, but it'll be a long one, press confrence, with our bosses."  
Silla nodded, "And it's only a matter of time before someone asks the question that'll get us all killed."  
Tem shook his head, "It's not likely that they'd kill us."  
Silla shivered, "No, but they'd separate and exile us."  
Tem smiled, "True, but they'd send us to Khurano, as long as we're on the same planet, we'll be able to find each other no problem. This is true love, right?"  
Silla nodded, smiling, "Right." She unfolded, stretching, "So I'm going to go take a shower, and you're going to call Kyzè." She was already into the bathroom, "I'll be out in two ticks"  
Tem nodded, already ringing up Kyzè, "I'll be here."  
  
Kyzè answered, rubbing a towel across his head, "Tembleton, what's going on?"  
Tem shook his head, "Silla's having nightmares again. Think you can manage a drop-in before the meeting?"  
Kyzè nodded, "Sure thing, I'll be here whenever she's ready."  
Tem nodded now, "I'll let her know as soon as she gets out of the shower."  
Kyzè chuckled, shaking his heads, "Shame on you, making your wife of eight and fifteen years shower alone."  
Tem smiled, "Fine, I'll go join her then send her over."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 


End file.
